‘Shut up Karen’: LA Times writer sweatpants-shames locked-down Americans during pandemic & gets roasted

Sniffing that Americans working from home should “dress like the adult you’re getting paid to be” rather than prioritize comfort over office dress code, a Los Angeles Times writer got a digital spanking for his skewed priorities.

Adam Tschorn, deputy fashion editor at the Times, took on the Herculean task of imposing sartorial order on his housebound readership on Friday, attempting to shame them into upholding his arbitrary style standards while they worked in coronavirus-imposed isolation. It didn’t go well.

Insisting on the importance of “ritual,” Tschorn proudly declared he “won’t even consider punching the virtual time clock” until he’s “showered, shaved and fully dressed. This includes shoes – especially shoes – even if I don’t intend to leave the house,” he bragged, before insisting everyone else follow his example out of “respect” for their bosses and co-workers.

Leaving aside the question of who can see one’s shoes (or pants, for that matter) during even the most strenuous Zoom meeting, the internet rushed to see who exactly had the gall to shame their fashion choices in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The answer surprised more than a few people, and critics had a field day shredding the writer’s own fashion choices.

Some attempted armchair psychoanalysis of the self-styled Grand Inquisitor of Fashion, questioning his relationship with reality…

…as well as that of the paper which published him.

Others had less patience for the oddly attired clothing cop. “You can pry my sweatpants from my cold dead legs,” snarled one user, only for another to correct: “*warm dead legs.” 

“Part of being an adult is not letting some snotty-ass columnist tell you how to dress,” another observed. 

Even the Times appeared to realize it had read the room wrong, following up the unpopular piece with several tweets poking fun at its own writer.

The Times announced on Thursday it was furloughing non-editorial employees for 16 weeks and imposing pay cuts of up to 15 percent due to plummeting ad revenue triggered by the pandemic shutdowns. But will those furloughed employees be wearing pants at home? That is the important question. 

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